Lions pack eager to test themselves against the Stormers – PJ Botha
· Citizen
The Lions pack are eager to test themselves against the best, and that means going toe to toe with the other South African franchises, with the Stormers next on their list in their United Rugby Championship (URC) derby at Ellis Park on Saturday.
This is the Lions’ third straight local derby, and it will once again see them come up against an extremely formidable pack that is known as one of the best in the business, in the Stormers, who will be eager to assert themselves.
Visit catcross.org for more information.
The Lions will thus have their work cut out for them, and they will want to put in a strong showing, as they did against the Sharks over the past weekend, and not like their poor effort against the Bulls late last month.
“I believe the Stormers have one of the best scrums in South Africa, and in saying that I believe the South African (teams’) scrums are the best in the URC,” explained Lions first choice hooker PJ Botha at a training session this week.
“So these home derbies that we have been having have been a massive test for our scrum and, that’s how we like to measure ourselves. We don’t want to measure against B (much weaker) scrums. We want to measure ourselves against the best because that is how we improve.
“One aspect that the Stormers are better (than us) is in the hit, but in that I feel there are a lot of opportunities for us. If we can stick to our system I believe we can have a good day in the scrums.”
Rain foreacst
With rain forecast on the day of the match, and with the field having been torn up a bit during their game against the Sharks, Botha said that wet conditions would make things more difficult for the Lions pack.
“It definitely makes our job tougher. If the pitch gives in it puts a bit of doubt in every guy in the scrums mind, about if we give too much we could maybe slip. So we just have to give more of a collective effort in the scrums if the it is wet and slippery,” said Botha.
Arguably the Lions first choice front row is Springbok powerhouse Asenathi Ntlabakanye, Botha and SJ Kotze, who are often deployed together and usually start the match, and Botha had plenty of praise for the props either side of him.
“I must say Ase (Ntlabakanye) has improved immensely in the scrums since being with the Springboks. He brings a lot of learnings back to us and he constantly hypes the team up, to scrum better and have more aggression on the sets. So Ase is a makes a big difference to our scrums,” said Botha.
“SJ is getting better every single game. I know he had a bit of a problem with collapsing a couple of scrums early in the season. But he has fixed that really nicely and he is getting stronger and stronger.”